Numerous luggage transporting problems have arisen over the years for transporting luggage in airports, hotels, various vehicle, and various marshaling areas for luggage. One of the more popular types of luggage that has been developed is the so-called "wheeled luggage" which has one or more wheels connected to a peripheral edge of a lower end of a piece of luggage and an extendable and retractable handle positioned on a peripheral edge of an upper end of the luggage. A person transporting the luggage can then readily tilt the luggage upon the wheels when positioned upon a support surface and tow the luggage with the extended handle. When transporting the luggage by hand is not a concern, the handle can be retracted and the luggage lifted by one or more auxiliary handles to store the luggage. This type of wheeled luggage is commonly known for carrying clothes and is generally compact for fitting underneath seats and in overhead luggage compartments on airplanes. An example of such wheeled luggage can be seen in U.S. Pat. No. 5,295,565 by Latshaw titled "Wheeled Luggage" which also has the common inventor as the present patent application.
Using wheels on luggage for larger, and often heavier, recreational equipment such as golf bags, skis, camping equipment, surfboards, and musical instruments is less known. Such large recreational equipment does not typically fit into conventional luggage sized to carry clothing or conventional wheeled luggage as illustrated in the patent cited above. When such enlarged luggage is transported to a destination, the user often has to manually lift, drag, or haul the equipment without the use of wheels or in addition to carrying or towing other luggage. Alternatively, the user may position the enlarged luggage or equipment on an airport luggage dolly or cart, but the enlarged luggage or equipment protrudes from the dolly or cart still making it awkward and difficult to transport. Other hand trucks or dollies have been developed which are collapsible for travel and the like. An example of one of these hand trucks can be seen in U.S. Pat. No. 4,630,837 by Kazmark titled "Two-Wheeled Cart With Auxiliary Wheel." To pack and transport such collapsible dollies can be difficult and awkward. Additionally, such hand trucks are conventionally sized for smaller items or smaller luggage and not larger recreational equipment.
Also, porters or other personnel often are hired or needed to carry a person's enlarged luggage, especially when additional luggage also needs to be transported for a trip. The transporter of the enlarged luggage still can often easily tilt, drop, or generally lose control of the handling of the luggage. Such transporting of the enlarged luggage can be made even more difficult when the transporter also has to handle other pieces of luggage such as for clothing, laptop computers, brief cases, tote bags, or other luggage associated with the person's travel. Further, such hiring of additional personnel can be expensive, especially for a frequent traveler, and sometimes this type of help is not available such as in some hotel lobbies, airports, or other marshaling areas.